Evansville, Wis., March 9, 1881.
[If the colonies were very strong, the loss may not be
appreciable. The cause may be attributed to age of the bees
when put away, and subsequent long confinement; or the
cellar may have been too warm at times, and the bees become
uneasy.—ED.]
=Contradictory Experience.=—The poor bees have suffered dreadfully in
this locality, and the circumstances and conditions under which some
have perished and others survived the past trying season, are so varied
that I am quite at a loss what to think about bee preservation during
the winter season. I had 12 colonies last fall; I packed 6 with chaff 6
inches thick around them, and have 1 colony left of the lot. There is
honey in the combs, but the bees are all dead. I put 3 colonies in the
cellar; 2 of them are alive, but in a bad condition, the combs being
dirty and moldy. I left 3 on the summer stands, and 1 is yet alive.
None died for want of honey; there was plenty of food for them in the
hives. The 6 were put into the chaff in the latter part of November,
and taken out on the 8th of March. The combs look clean and free from
mold. About a week before I took them out of the chaff I had taken off
the front boards, and finding the bees alive, shut them up again. Upon
taking them out this was the only colony that was alive. When I took
the chaff off, the bees were crowded around the entrance ready to fly,
which they did at once, and had a lively time until they were driven
inside by the approach of night. Do you think the other 5 colonies
were dead the first time I looked at them? They had a passage through
the chaff 1 inch high by 4 wide. A friend of mine here had 4 colonies
wintered outside, with an old piece of sail-cloth over them, and only
lost one, while old bee-keepers, with between 50 and 100 colonies, have
lost one half, and others have lost all.